A Different Vision in eLearning: Metaphors Nazime Tuncay1, Ioana Andreea Stanescu2, and Mustafa Tuncay3 1 Near East University, Nicosia, North Cyprus 2 Advanced Technology Systems, Romania 3 Atatürk Teacher Academy, North Cyprus nazime.tuncay@gmail.com ioana.stanescu@ats.com.ro mustafa.tuncay@aoa.edu.tr Abstract: Metaphors are figures of speech in which a word or phrase that denotes a certain object or idea is applied to another word or phrase to imply some similarity between them. Due to their ability to make speaking and writing more lively and interesting, metaphors have always been popular among students. While metaphors provide significant enhancement of contexts and build upon the sense of community, they can limit the boundaries of the communication between students and teachers. In order to carry out student oriented courses, teachers ought to consider the metaphors students use. In an effort to understand and fill in this communication gap, the authors of this paper have initiated a study that aimed to drive out the e-education students‟ metaphors in order to suggest a vision for future e-courses. The authors have designed the “E-Education Metaphor Analysis Survey” that comprised 35 items and captured data about e-education students‟ metaphors. The questionnaire was posted on Surveymonkey.com and was distributed to e-education students in two countries: Turkey and Cyprus. 352 students filled the questionnaire. The answers revealed that the metaphors students use are influenced by their way of life, their personal characteristics, their educational background and their feelings. Internet was the most common metaphor used for e-education. A very interesting fact was that 47% of the students considered E-Student to be equivalent to “rich students‟ education” and that the term recalled them the metaphor “richness”. Although there were many research studies on common metaphors and their impact on eeducation, there were no studies in the literature about eLearning metaphors. This paper presents an innovative approach that focuses on 7 key research questions and represents a first step of a more detailed future project undertaken by the authors. Keywords: eLearning; metaphors; students; SurveyMonkey
1. Introduction Students learn in different ways, they develop their own understanding patterns, and they build new communities and new language items that grow more and more complex and that can prove really challenging for teachers. To reach a common ground, teachers need to constantly consider new perspectives that could lead to the enhancement of the communication with their students, and consequently of the learning process. A very practical approach is to take note of the metaphors that students use in their daily life. Metaphors sustain a better understanding of an object or of an idea to which the metaphor is being applied and they can communicate a more accurate meaning with just a word or a phrase. More, they create a sense of belonging and acceptance in certain communities, strengthening group communication. Learners are most satisfied with courses in which the instructors facilitate frequent contact between themselves and learners, where they use active learning techniques, convey high expectations, emphasize the time spent on specific tasks, and provide prompt feedback (Polloff and Pratt, 2001). Under these premises, metaphors present a great potential for the highly complex learning process and their usage can impact positively upon the students‟ results.
1.1 The term eLearning and eLearners Although numerous definitions of eLearning are found in the professional literature, this term often refers to instruction or training delivered using media, computers, and technologies such as the WWW and Intranets. The content delivered via eLearning is related to (a) instructional goals, (b) specific instructional methods, (c) selected media, and (d) knowledge and skills for achieving individual or organizational goals (Uzunboylu, 2007; Muthukumar, 2004; Clark and Mayer, 2003). There is a growing body of literature on eLearning technologies (see for instance Gayeski, 1993; Gibbons & Fairweather,1998;Kearsley, 2005; Khan, 1997); Learners have different ways of learning and their issues such as instructional support, faculty motivation and enthusiasm, and technology problems have been raised as problems in developing ISSN 1479-4403 105 ©Academic Publishing International Ltd Reference this paper as: Tuncay, N, Stanescu, I, A, and Tuncay, M. “A Different Vision in eLearning: Metaphors” The Electronic Journal of e-Learning Volume 9 Issue 1 2011, (pp105-114), available online at www.ejel.org
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online instruction in many institutions for a long time (Barr and Tag, 1995). There may be several issues effecting learners‟ perceptions about online learning: Instructor, Website, Computer Skills, Pedagogical Issues and English Language. If learners are not satisfied with the design of the course website, they may have negative perceptions of the effectiveness their online courses (Brush, 2001). Technological problems and pedagogical issues make learners get frustrated with the online courses (Hara and Kling, 2003).
1.2 The impact of metaphors in eLearning Metaphors have proven to be a highly useful tool in the development of theories in the social sciences (Hartzell, 2004; Kendall & Kendall, 1993; Levassuer, 2004; Wang, 2004). They provide a convenient means by which to create a taxonomy; the first step towards description, then prediction and finally to understanding (Kerssens-van-Drongelen, 2001; Lewis &Grimes, 1999; Lynham, 2000). Also, metaphors become essential elements that comprise the everyday language among specialists (Cook-Sather, 2003) and they are used to communicate meanings without describing them directly but using some element that could help others understand the concept individuals want to communicate. There are many metaphors that surround the concept of eLearning. Each of them provides some insight and represents a different understanding, but taken together they reveal what a complex concept eLearning really is. Each metaphor offers unique perspectives for the group that is using it and, at the same time, limits understanding in various ways both for the group that has generated and is using the metaphor and also for people residing outside of the group. This fact constitutes premises for broadening the gap between teachers and students and disagreements may be just a result of each group talking past each other while using different metaphors. Metaphors embody and define the intangible and abstract, but this process inevitably constrains perceptions and actions to those which make sense within the logic of the metaphor. Metaphors are therefore both descriptive and prescriptive. It is important that both students and teachers become aware of their own metaphors for eLearning, so they can recognize how these limit or liberate them. Working together with other learners increases involvement in learning and deepens understanding (Chickering & Ehrmann, 1996). These differences in students‟ perceptions and understanding result in them developing and using different metaphors, for every metaphor highlights one aspect of the concept, just as it hides another; Lakoff and Johnson (1980) call this „„metaphorical systematicity‟‟. In his analysis of McLuhan‟s impact, Levinson (2001) reflects his regrets that McLuhan‟s statements have fueled „„the fire of worry that bad things are happening that we can‟t know or understand‟‟. And while McLuhan proposed that the „„medium has an impact above and beyond what we do with it‟‟ (Levinson 2001), there is no firm evidence as yet that the worriers are correct (Meyer 2002). Tuncay&Özçınar (2009) have carried out a research study on 106 university students and reached the conclusion that for E-class the Paris metaphor was chosen by 22.2%; for Distant Student, "computer heroes" metaphor was the most commonly chosen; for Blended education, the metaphor "Girls and Boys together" was the most commonly chosen (22.2%); for Synchronous Education, "Morning Education" was most commonly chosen (33.3%); for Asynchronous education, computer metaphor was the most commonly chosen. Students‟ metaphors have great impact in their life (Tuncay&Uzunboylu, 2009) and teachers must be aware of the metaphors their students use, in order to carry out their courses as student oriented.
1.3 Purpose of the study Most of the research studies in the literature were related to common metaphors and their impact on distance education (Meyer, 2005) and none of them approached e-education metaphors. The main purpose of this study is to drive out the university students‟ metaphors, build upon a better communication among students and teachers, and suggest a vision for future e-courses.
2. Method used 2.1 Population Over 600 questionnaires were distributed exclusively online via email, in Turkey and in Cyprus. When the submission was closed, after 1 month, a total of 352 questionnaires were collected. The
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distribution of the questionnaire to the target group has proved a real challenge, and generally each student was questioned two times.
2.2 Instrument To capture data about university students training needs, the authors have created the “E-Education Metaphor Analysis Survey” questionnaire, consisting of 35 items, and they have distributed it online. The online questionnaire was designed (see Figure 1) and posted (see Figure 2) on Surveymonkey.com and it has been emailed to university students that have previously been taken ecourses. In the first phase, the questionnaire has been distributed in two countries (Turkey and Cyprus), in Turkish. In order to evaluate the items in the questionnaire, expert evaluation (n = 13) was required. Experts group from education technologist evaluated the data gathering scale both individually and collaboratively, and sustained the maintenance of the content‟s validity. All the experts‟ evaluations and suggestions were taken over in the draft form of the questionnaire and afterwards the necessary corrections were made; some of the questionnaire questions included: what comes to your mind when one mentions E-education? What comes to your mind when one mentions E-course? What comes to your mind when one mentions E-counselor? What are 10 most favorite metaphors that you come across in your e-courses?
2.3 Data analysis The responses were downloaded from the surveymonkey.com . The authors considered descriptive statistics as a means to present quantitative descriptions in a manageable form and reduce lots of data into a simpler, yet more powerful summary that enables comparisons across people or other units. Descriptive statistics frequencies and percentages were used to analyze and to report the data gained from the questionnaire SurveyMonkey, as frequency and percentage statistics are considered more relevant in the representation of personal information variables. Frequency represents the number of participants who indicated that category (aka "Male"), while percentage was calculated by taking the frequency in the category divided by the total number of participants and multiplying by 100%. The study reports descriptive statistics such as gender, age and country.
Figure 1: Designing questionnaire on SurveyMonkey
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Figure 2: Questionnaire on SurveyMonkey
3. Results and discussion In this section, the authors present in detail the survey results by item, respectively: eLearning metaphors, country, gender, percentages of e-metaphors, and common metaphors, identified as relevant in this effort to fill in the gap and build the grounds for common understanding between teachers and students.
3.1 eLearning metaphors The metaphors derived by students and their percentages are (see Figure 2):
TV Channel (0.3%),
Human Brain (0.6%),
Java Games (1.7%),
Other (4.9%),
Magazine (11.5%),
Classroom (17.5%),
Digital Story (18.9%) and
Internet (44.7%)
The spectrum of options reflects the evolution of education from traditional to technology-based approaches, allowing respondents to situate themselves in a non-ambiguous perception zone.
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Figure 2: eLearning metaphors
3.2 Responses according to country The survey was distributed in Turkey and in Cyprus. Since the two cultures share common backgrounds, no significant differences were seen in the answers to the question “What comes to your mind when one mentions about asynchronous education?� (See Figure 3).
Figure 3: Synchronous education metaphors according to country www.ejel org
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3.3 Responses according to gender 60 of the students have not specified their gender. Overall, 136 men and 140 women have participated in this study. An independent sample t-test found no significant difference between groups (p>0.05) which have specified their gender. For asynchronous education, the students from Turkey have chosen the “morning classes” metaphor in a greater percentage than the students from Cyprus, while the students from Cyprus have selected the “Classroom”, “Light” and “Non-technological” metaphors at a greater percentage than the students in Turkey.
3.4 Percentages of “E-” Metaphors Table 1 lists the e-education metaphors, which have the highest ranks, based on the questionnaire results. According to these, the E-school students said that “I feel like I am wondering in space”. The E-student should go after information as an e-detective. The E-teacher is the one who has the last word. 47% of the students answered that the E-Student is equivalent to “rich students‟ education” and that the term recalled them the metaphor “richness”. Their reasoning was: “You need to be rich to have education via mobile phone”. 48.3% of the students paired E-Project to “Imaginary World” and their reasoning was that objects generally are never written on paper, it is like in an imaginary world”. Table 1: E-metaphors Keyword
Metaphors
Reasoning There are lots of e-groups that use Skype, Wikipedia and so on to share information with classmates They judge our work and take decisions We come across lots of quizzes created by hot-potatoes They are like distant relatives they say what to do without exactly being in the same conditions, even in the same country, more like distant relatives
Percentage of the Answer
E-Class
E-Group
85.7%
E-Teacher
Judge
E-Quiz
Hot-potatoes
E-Counselor
Distant Relative
E-School
Space
We can not physically be in it
58.3%
E-Help
MSN
We generally get e-help through MSN
56.0%
E-Student
Detective
They should do lots of researches and search for clues of success like detectives
51.4%
E-Project
Imaginary World
Projects generally are never written on paper, it is like in an imaginary world
48.3%
71.4% 68.9%
60.0%
3.5 Common metaphors “What are 10 most favorite metaphors that you come across in your e-courses?” was one of the questions in the questionnaire. The students‟ answers and reasoning were consistently different (listed in Table 2). The words which have highest metaphor rank (85.7%) are: Athlete (metaphor: Greyhound); Guitar (metaphor: Antonio Banderas); Mother (metaphor: Water); Sea (metaphor: Bed cover); University (metaphor: Money), The other words which have highest metaphor rank are: Cloud (metaphor: Cotton); Red (metaphor: Blood); Clock (metaphor: Water); Poplar Tree (metaphor:Tall); Comb(Hairdresser); Ring(metaphor: Marriage). There are other metaphors that have been used, reflecting the diversity of approached that students have been taken and also they vivid imagination that triggers a constantly open challenge for their teachers.
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Table 2: Commonly used metaphors Noun Athlete Guitar Mother
Metaphor Greyhound Antonio Banderas Water
Sea University Cloud Red Clock
Bed cover Money Cotton Blood Water
Poplar Tree Comb Ring America Gamble Noun Leg Scissors Turkish people Eyelash Ice Summer Distance Education Horse Moustache Spain Woman Holiday Mushroom Snow Walnuts Chicken Dog Human Being Needle Pizza Student Blue Phone
Tall Hairdresser Marriage Freedom Cyprus Metaphor Column Tailor Wolf Türkan Şoray Glass Sea Mars England Kadir İnanır Bull Flower Antalya Umbrella Erzurum Brain Döner Smell Monkey
Airplane Fork Lahmacun School Tea Father
Hay Italy Slave Sky Mobile Phone Bird Rake Gaziantep Home Rize Mountain
Kebab Scarf Sun Cigarette Poem Desert Rose Beef Numbers Ball New Year
Adana Funeral Orange Liver Orhan Veli Camel Teacher Chop Mathematics Wheel Santa Claus
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Common Reasoning Both are agile and quick Antonio Banderas plays guitar in films
Frequency 85.7% 85.7%
She is pure and beautiful as water and we need her to be with us as we need water They both makes you rest You have to have money to go to university Same visuals It‟s the first thing which comes to our mind. Clock goes fast and it does not come back. Similarly when water falls down it does not come back into its container. Poplar Tree is tall Hairdressers use comb too often Ring is a symbol of marriage America is a place of freedom People come to Cyprus to gamble Common Reasoning Both are straight and long Tailors use scissors too often Wolf is a symbol for Turkish people
85.7% 85.7% 85.7% 84.6% 84.6% 76.9% 76.9% 75.7% 75.7% 71.4% 71.4% Frequency 71.4% 71.4% 71.4%
Türkan Şoray has long and beautiful eyelashes You can see through them both We swim in the summers It makes us believe that we can have courses even in the Mars. In films English people ride horses Kadir İnanır is a famous artist with moustache Spain is famous with bull fights They love flower It‟s a favorite Turkish holiday place Very similar Erzurum has too much snow They resemble in shape Chicken meal Dogs are sensitive to smells Dawin's theory, we, human beings developed from Monkey.
68.9% 68.9% 68.9% 60.0%
They resemble Italy is famous with its pizza Must do whatever exercises the teacher gives The blue is the color of the sky When somebody says phone we understand mobile phone
56.0% 56.0% 56.0% 52.9%
Both are in the sky They resemble in shape Lahmacun is famous food in Gaziantep School is warm as a home Rize has a different taste of tea Is powerful. No danger comes to you as far as your father is near you. Adana is famous with its Kebab Woman use scarf in funerals Both are yellow Cigarette is harmful to liver Famous person who writes poems Camels live in deserts We give roses to our teachers every teacher‟s days. We eat chops of beef We use lots numbers in mathematics They are very alike. Santa Claus and presents comes to our mind
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60.0% 60.0% 60.0% 60.0% 58.3% 58.3% 58.3% 58.3% 56.0% 56.0% 56.0%
52.9% 51.4% 51.4% 51.4% 51.4% 51.4% 48.3% 48.3% 48.3% 48.3% 40.0% 40.0% 35.1% 35.1% 33.1% 33.1% 32.6% 32.6% ISSN 1479-4403
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4. Conclusion and recommendation This paper approached the way students use and interact with different metaphors for e-education keywords. First, this research has involved naturalistic processes that are embedded in the same milieu: Cyberspace, the digital world, and the human mind. Secondly, metaphors were considered as expressions or manifestations of the same philosophical foundations. This paper underlines the importance of metaphors in the process of information communication in eLearning environments. The authors‟ recommendations, concluded based on the results of this research, are that the potential of metaphors in e-education should be explored more extensively and more thoroughly in order to support better interconnections among eLearning actors. The use of metaphors creates the setting for a closer and more open communication and increases the sense of social presence in virtual learning spaces, increasing the educational outcomes. Metaphors stand out as a key element that streamlines communication, attracts e-students and increases their involvement in e-experiences. Metaphors build on the sense of community and should be developed to further levels that enhance e-students‟ experience and e-teachers‟ abilities to communicate the course objectives. The exploration should focus upon open source as a metaphor for instructional practices – design and delivery, instructional platforms - technologies, and instructional philosophy of e-education. The key questions that deserve attention in the area of instructional practices - design and delivery are:
Is e-essentially a heuristic experience within the context of a shared repertoire of communal resources (routines, sensibilities, artifacts, vocabulary, styles, etc.) that members have developed over time?
What does this suggest in regard to the design of e-education?
What does this suggest in regard to the provision or the delivery of e-education?
Future research shall extend the distribution of the questionnaire in other countries. The authors shall consider both countries whose culture is similar to Turkish and Cypriot culture, and also countries that present a different cultural background.
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